May hasn’t been a great month for the Toronto Blue Jays, but one of the bright spots for the team has been the recent play of outfielder Chris Colabello.
Claimed on waivers by the Blue Jays this past offseason, the 31-year-old Colabello was assigned to Triple-A Buffalo to open the 2015 season. He proceeded to hit .337 with five home runs and 18 RBI in April and won the International League Player of the Month award to earn a call-up to the major leagues.
Since making his debut with the Blue Jays on May 5, Colabello has quickly become one of the team’s hottest hitters. In 20 games, Colabello has an impressive slash line of .378/.439/.581 with three home runs, 12 RBI and 13 runs scored.
While those numbers are terrific, the most impressive aspect of Colabello’s performance has been his consistency game to game. He has gotten at least one hit in 15 out of 20 games played and has nine multihit games during that span.
Colabello’s emergence has come at an ideal time for the Blue Jays. After a spring training injury to Michael Saunders, Toronto started the season with an outfield consisting of Jose Bautista, Dalton Pompey and Kevin Pillar.
Since then, Pompey has been sent down to the minors after a poor showing in April. Pillar has struggled at the plate, hitting just .222/.258/.307 with an OPS of .565. Bautista has been hampered by a shoulder injury that he suffered near the end of April and has primarily served as the team’s designated hitter since then.
This is where the addition of Colabello has really helped the Blue Jays solidify their outfield while they wait for Bautista and Saunders to get healthy. Offensively, Colabello has also helped Toronto make up for the extended loss of other regulars in the lineup, such as Jose Reyes and Devon Travis.
Sure, it’s unlikely that Colabello will continue to hit near .400 for the rest of the season. According to FanGraphs, Colabello’s batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is at a whopping .510 at the moment. That is considerably higher than his career BABIP of .325.
Considering Colabello has struck out in nearly 30 percent of his at-bats, expect his on-base percentage to also drop once less of the balls he puts into play start going for hits.
But Colabello’s hot stretch has given Toronto another dependable bat in the lineup while the team waits for its outfield situation to improve. Even when that happens, though, expect Colabello to get plenty of at-bats if he can continue to produce at such a respectable clip.
*All stats are from MLB.com.
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